Archive of Vol. XV No. 15, November 16-30, 2005

Reg. No. TN/PMG (CCR) /814/04-05 Licence No. WPP 506/04-05 Registered with the Registrar of Newspapers for India under WE CARE FOR MADRAS THAT IS CHENNAI R.N. 53640/91 INSIDE Wetlands, the citys wealth Geared towards excellence MADRAS Early days of Indian sail Indian celebrity chefs MUSINGS Fifty years in Division I Rs. 5 per copy Vol. XV No. 15 November 16-30, 2005 (Annual Subscription: Rs. 100/-) A glimmer of hope In the fight to save the Adyar ecosystem (by Shobha Menon) he protection and the indiscriminate, uncontrolled Tpreservation of the area and haphazard growth along around the Adyar Estuary and the coast, more particularly in I will repeat your order, Sir... Miso the Elliots Beach along the the areas prohibited for con- Melagutani Soup, Sushi in Sambar, Urur Olcott Kuppam, was the struction activity, in the last few Tandoori Hibachi Chicken, and intent of the writ petition filed years, has had a serious impact Kabocha Manju Masala Dosa! in the public interest by T. on the sensitive coastal ecosys- If thats your address, Murugavel of the Trust for tem, the petition added, Any Ecology and Eco-restoration construction activity on the you must be (TREE) against the Tamil beach to the south of the Adyar one of ... THEM! Nadu Coastal Zone Manage- estuary would have a disastrous For years now, the city, like any ment Authority. The appeal impact on the fragile ecosystem self-respecting flourishing me- urged the Court to direct the of the Adyar River and the tropolis, has shown a marked respondents to take all mea- coast. tendency to spread in various sures, including preventive Says Murugavel, an ardent directions, rather like an out- measures, to cease all illegal environmentalist and wildlife of-control amoeba. activities, including photographer who often talks of Many of these little sprouting l Clearing and levelling of becoming an eco-terrorist, cities within the city have de- land, extraction and removal Three years ago, the then veloped their own character, of sand; General Manager of the Theo- ethos, leading to slightly catty Manohar Devadoss, that well-known artist of Madras, who creates detailed classifications like typical l Raising unauthorised struc- sophical Society, Arjun, was la- tures on the Elliots Beach, menting about the illegal sand pen-and-ink drawings of historic monuments, despite battling with declining vision, Nagar Type or Too presents six new greeting cards this year, each with a brief text on the history of the Puram for words! north of Urur Olcott quarrying that was going on un- Kuppam, and ensuring com- abated and the gradual monument. How does this happen? Who The sales proceeds go to service-minded institutions like Sankara Nethralaya, decides that that patch nor pliance of the Coastal Regu- encroachment of the Adyar by Aravind Eye Hospital, SPASTN and others. Apart from the money the cards nor west is going to be Little- lation Zone Notification slums. generate, they also create a greater awareness of our heritage and the need to Piece-of-the-North, while dated 19.02.1991; Construction began in the preserve our historic buildings. that tract of land sou sou l Restoring the areas affected northern side in 1997, intensi- This years cards feature the Guindy east is designated IT-And- by sand extraction; and fying in 2001, when sand was Engineering College building, the Partha- Such-Like-Flavour-Of-The- sarathy Temple in Triplicane, Wesley Month-Professionals-Only? l Passing further, or other, quarried across the estuary. An orders as may be necessary. alleged official sanction for Church in Egmore, An elephant carrying Yonder is True-Blue-Home- coconut fronds near Madurai, Alagar Grown-Thair-Saadham, while The High Court recently removal of 50 lorries a day in responded to the petition by reality had meant about 100 Temple near Madurai, and a view of right across is Global-Cuisine- Madurai Meenakshi Amman Temple. With-Shops-That-Sell-Out- directing Government to com- lorries round-the-clock, which Featured above is the Guindy fits-to Match, all of which ply with the Courts recom- is when I felt some action should Engineering College building and, below, leads to relevant hordes mendations. The High Courts be taken to stop this devastation Wesley Church. thronging there to pitch their response has been called a of the ecosystem. tents. Sounds a little like a gi- very significant ruling by In his petition, Murugavel ant game of Match the Fol- environmentalists in the city. pointed out there has been a lowing. May be people instinctively seek According to the affidavit, move on the part of the private out like-minded souls and The Adyar River, of which the construction lobby to clear the throng accordingly. Creek is a part, had become land without any permission Savvy entrepreneurs, having highly polluted over the years. and put up structures on the linked this possibility with the However, the estuary still has Elliots Beach, adjacent to the fact that the city today attracts vegetation, which is capable of Theosophical Society and a large number of long-term regeneration and is also a nest- north of the Urur Olcott temporary visitors, have ing ground for migratory birds. Kuppam within 50 m of the started creating little homes- Despite the increasing urbani- High Tide Line. The first step away-from-homes, ensuring nobody need feel homesick sation, almost 173 varieties of towards this is the removal of and lonesome. birds continue to flock to the the sand from the beach along Even Government has got into area. In 1990, the Madras Natu- the Urur Olcott Kuppam in the act with Little This and ralists Society (MNS) reported large quantities furtively during Little That. sighting nearly 8860 birds in the Of course, the uninformed local vicinity. Pointing out that (Continued on Page 6) now stands in danger of (Continued on Page 5) (Also see page 2) 2 MADRAS MUSINGS November 16-30, 2005 transport project has dumped debris from the hillsides onto the Chennais wetlands. Doesnt this sound familiar, especially if you think of the Adyar-San Thomé Greenways Road wetlands or what is happening and has hap- wetlands pened in the Velachery and Pallikaranai areas. CAG tried to stop through public interest liti- Will we ever capitalise on gations massive housing projects of the Tamil Nadu Housing this wealth? Board in the low-lying areas etlands play a very im- is geologically in a tilt sloping and lakebeds of Velachery, The Pallikaranai marsh. Wportant role as natural eastwards, causing many of the Ambattur, Nolambur, 1985. Surely, if such a scenario Forest Department were to take ecosystems. Tragically, espe- rivers of peninsular India to flow Chitlapakkam and Kakkalur. were to repeat itself, the loss the initiative and create pro- cially when they are located eastwards. It is against this geo- These projects had received fi- now would be manifold, con- ductive, public-private partner- close to cities and growing ur- logical and ecological historical nancial approval from the sidering that the city is pushing ships, these wetlands can be re- ban agglomerations such as background that we should un- World Bank and HUDCO. itself heavily as an attractive stored. They can also take Chennai, where the demand derstand the network of wet- Despite all CAGs efforts, the destination for IT companies. genuine pride in removing the for land in terms of housing and lands and man-made tanks, in- Court refused to interfere in the This is not to create any sense stigma of Chennai being re- other needs increases, they are cluding temple tanks, which matter. of panic, but to realistically as- ferred to as the Smelling City. seen as areas with potential for are part of an extensive natural Another PIL related to the sess how a coastal city should Other than these gains, it is land development. This is so es- and man-made system to store plans to convert the wetlands use its natural design to man- also useful to consider that once pecially when the demand for the flows and act like a vast adjacent to the Greenways age potential natural disasters the beauty of wetlands is re- new land for development be- catchment network for the wa- Road into a memorial for Dr. and not pay a higher cost by stored and they are on their way comes urgent. This, coupled ter, especially closer to the Ambedkar, while actually cre- destroying the inherent values to ecological recovery, they can with the rising land prices, more coast. These wetlands and ating real estate around the me- contained in its natural setting become areas of rich natural often fuelled by speculators tanks not only store the surface morial for other uses. The Court and design. heritage. Our generation, which than real, is when both the water flows during the mon- judgment accepted (by and by standing silent and passive State and private entities start soons but also serve to charge large) CAGs objections and The road ahead while this rich natural wealth of looking for where new land can the groundwater aquifers and the order itself, which allowed These natural assets can in our city is being destroyed and be found if not created. serve as flood control mecha- the Memorial but halted the fact be turned to Chennais ad- which has allowed these valu- When there are no genuine nisms. Not to recognise the role other proposed activities, was vantage. Seen from the point of able natural ecosystems to be workable land use plans on the played by these wetlands, along unique in many ways. Follow- view of the geological tilt of the completely obliterated, still has part of Government and there with the waterways, like the ing up on the Court order would peninsula, Madras is only four a chance to repay its debts in is pressure to put new land on feet above mean sea level.

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